George Washington’s Farewell Address, speaking on political parties (from wiki.answers.com)

“They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.”

Since the political shift of 1994, with Newt Gingrich and his Contract for America, bitpartisanship has become a dirty word in the conservative vernacular.

This disdain for anything that smacks of compromise intensified exponentially with the advent of the Tea Party and their candidate’s successes in the 2010 elections.

What we have now is an attempt by the Tea Party Republican ‘faction’ to rule as a minority. They have little interest in governing, if the difference between ruling and governing implies a requirement for political compromise.

This is exactly what our first President warned us of. He foresaw those ‘small and artful’ politicians with their ‘ill-concerted and incongruous projects’ trying to force their vision of our country instead of attempting any ‘common counsel’ or ‘mutual interest’.

So what to do in counterbalance to this force dedicated to foisting its policies and dictates on the American people?

My answer would be to do whatever it takes to remove them from their temporary seat of power. I would remove them as a statement that our founding fathers fully intended, by virtue of the checks and balances they carefully crafted into our governmental system, to forge a system based on compromise.

Every major crises with the exception of the Civil War has been resolved by the two major parties, regardless of the rancor of the debate, crafting a give and take answer that at least temporarily put the issues to rest.

We can’t afford to lose sight of the precedent and traditions that have served us so well since our founding some 220 plus years ago. We must send the Tea Party packing.

“Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.”

There’s more at the link.

This is a disaster in the making. In some states twice as many voters have been purged than new registrations.

We should be demanding provisional ballots if we are told at the polls that we’re ineligible due to purging. We should be in the streets on November 5th if McCain wins this election due to this improper purging of eligible voters.

Lambasting Johns Coryn (R TX) and McCain (R AZ) for their shoddy faux support of Webb’s GI Bill. Quoting the article
“Senators John Cornyn and John McCain are like two anti-troop peas in a pod. After voting against the Dwell TIme Amendment that would give soldiers equal time at home as they spent overseas, both adamantly opposed the new GI Bill as “too generous.” Going a step further, Cornyn’s aide personally told me during a call to his office that the new GI Bill would encourage soldiers to leave the service. Of course, Cornyn pulled that notion out of John McCain’s ass, who repeatedly suggested the new GI Bill would harm the military by way of reduced retention. Transferability of the bill to family members never came up during the opposition to this bill. ”

McCain then shamelessly tried to take credit for the bill.

Veterans of America, you should know who’s on your side, and McIIIrd, it ain’t.

The FISA Amendments Act, H.R. 6304, will increase the nation’s security by strengthening the ability of the intelligence community to conduct lawful surveillance of terrorists, as well as protect constitutional rights by requiring warrants before the government can surveil any American.

“This bipartisan bill balances the needs of our intelligence community with Americans’ civil liberties, and provides critical new oversight and accountability requirements,” said Hoyer. “It is the result of compromise, and like any compromise is not perfect, but I believe it strikes a sound balance. Furthermore, we have ensured that Congress can revisit these issues because the legislation will sunset at the end of 2012.”

Ummm, they caved on immunity. It is now officially OK for a private company, on the request of the executive to violate our Constitution and break the law. There will be no penalty.

If there is no penalty for breaking the rules, then the rules are useless. How do you explain to your children the stance that the Clinton camp is making to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations as currently constituted?

When attempting to answer these questions that your children inevitably bring up, the Michigan and Florida primaries and delegations make a great example.

Although both states have been pushing the DNC to change the timing of the primary cycle for years, they were unable to get the DNC to change the rules.
So they broke them.
There must be consequences for breaking rules, or they have no meaning.
Senator Obama removed his name from the Michigan ballot, and neither candidate campaigned in earnest in either state.
The rules were clear, and accepted by both candidates, although Senator Clinton failed to remove her name from the Michigan ballot as Obama did.

No one thought much of the fact that the DNC insisted, up front, that these delegates would NOT be seated.

So now, in a desperate ploy, the Clinton campaign is trying to move the goal posts to include those delegates in the count for the nomination.
This will be decided by the rules or credentials committees, whose job it is to determine the fate of those delegations.

To agree to a set of rules, then, when things don’t go your way, you attempt to change the rules is cheating.
Even a child understands this.

Barack Obama’s campaign has been eerily quiet since the pastor episode. It’s as if they aren’t quite sure what to do now.

Senator Clinton came out with a major proposal, and we hear nothing from Senator Obama’s campaign.

It is time for him to come out with detailed proposals and programs. Put the flesh on the bones of the bullet points on his platform.

Increase investments in infrastructure

Energy independence

Education

Research and development

Modernize and simplify our tax code so it provides greater opportunity and relief to more Americans

Implement trade policies that benefit American workers and increase the export of American goods.

Each of these bullet points needs a clear definition and details about how each will be paid for, and as much implementation detail as possible.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which says that fuzzy is better, as there aren’t details to pick apart. I disagree with that wisdom at this time.

He doesn’t have to win Pennsylvania, but coming within four percent or so would allocate sufficient delegates to make Clinton’s continued fight irrelevant. I believe that with more clarity on these positions, more people will realize that he is the ‘real deal’, and put aside notions that ‘he isn’t ready’.